Shadowcat jumped through his window, calling "Plagg, Claws in!" losing his transformation before his feet hit the floor. He flopped himself into bed, and let out a muffled yell into his pillow.

"You should really find new ways of letting out all that pent up emotion!" Plagg commented, shaking his head and downing a generous wedge of Camembert from his secret stash.

"Just eat your cheese," Adrien mumbled against a mouthful of Egyptian cotton.

"I'm the one eating copious amounts of cheese, but you're so emotionally constipated. Lighten up for once! You got to struct your new look for Ladybug tonight didn't you?!"

"I couldn't believe it when she started joking around...using puns Plagg! Puns! I thought I would self-combust!" Adrien moaned. "Then she was giving me that look! You know the look. I just wanted to tell her everything right then and there."

"Yeah that was pretty funny. Her face went as red as her suit when she kept yelling "Where is my Chat Noir?!" Plagg cackled.

"I guess, I'm still trying to figure out who she wants me to be," Adrien turned over, running his hands through his hair, leaving it stick up on end.

"Just be yourself...if the world doesn't like it, if Ladybug doesn't like it then their loss!" Plagg cleaned his whiskers. "I never apologize for being the one and only Plagg!"

"Maybe...I don't really know who I want to real me to be..." Adrien laid on his back looking up at the ceiling, with his arm draped over his forehead. "I'm one way around my father...another way around my friends...and then Ladybug...who is the real me?"

Plagg sighed, and floated over to his weilder's side. "They are all the real you...you're just not two dimensional...you adapt, you change...that's life kid. The question is what 'you' make you the happiest?"

Adrien glanced over at Plagg and held his gaze, and then looked back up at the ceiling.

"It's up to you," Plagg said quietly, and returned to his cheese.

00000000000

"I've got to find a way to contact the REAL Chat Noir!" Marinette paced her room, and the kwami's watched her move back and forth like being spectators in a ping-pong match.

"Well...ah...maybe he'll turn up again. This Shadowcat fellow never really said he was a permeant replacement," Tikki tried to encourage.

"How could anyone replace Chat Noir!" Marinette flung her hands in the air. "I was all off my game without him there. It felt off...wrong. Oh gosh Tikki, what if I ruined everything and I've lost him for good?!"

"I'm sure everything will work out okay," Tikki reassured her, "Shadowcat wasn't all that bad."

"It's not that he was bad...he was good...I mean like skilled in fighting...mind for strategy...totally focused. He didn't crack under pressure, and...well, fine...he was great. Purrfect even...ahhhh, now I'm punning again!" Marinette dropped her head into her hands.

"The costume was nice," Tikki smiled with her teeth showing awkwardly.

"So he was hot! So what?! Are you happy? Yeah, he has those smoldering gold eyes, and that dark ebony hair that makes him look a little dangerous...and did I check him out when we were fighting, sure...not like the ripple muscly guys can impress me all that much...but I've got eyes!"

"Uhh...you seem a little..." Tikki bit her lip, and looked around nervously at the other kwamis.

"A little what Tikki?! A little what?!" Marinette demanded.

"Unhinged," Kaalki commented.

"I was going to say loopy," Xuppo interjected.

"deranged," Longg contributed.

"No...no...I think the proper term is buggy," Barkk shook his head, making Tikki glare at him.

Marinette let out a loud groan, and chucked her Ladybug plushie across the room. She then flopped down onto her computer chair, spinning around and gently picked up her Chat Noir plushie.

"Marinette, they didn't really mean that! You were just upset!" Tikki patted her shoulder.

"No...they're right. I'm going crazy. I am the cause of this. It is because I'm so uptight, so cold, so unlovable, so...so...'Marinette' that he left!" she looked down into the felt eyes of the little Chat Noir. "I drove him away. Made him feel like I didn't care...what is wrong with me."

The kwami's slunk down, and Tikki stayed by her weilder's side. "That is not who you are," the Ladybug kwami declared. "You have been trying to do impossible things with no guide. Young holders should have had a master to guide them, but yours was taken away too soon leaving you with the burden. Don't give up on your Chat Noir. I know he still cares for you, wherever he is."

"I hope he is okay," Marinette whispered, touching the little bell on the collar of the small Chat Noir. "He's got to be okay!"

0000000

Thank you so much for your likes and follows to let me know you are enjoying this story! The encouraging reviews totally make my day! Happy reading:)